Recreational vehicles, e.g. snowmobiles or personal watercraft, frequently must be transported from one site to another. When transporting recreational vehicles, it is common to carry them on a bed of a utility vehicle, e.g. in the bed of a "pickup" truck or on a trailer. For particularly light vehicles, one may be able to simply lift the vehicle to place it on the bed. Most recreational vehicles, though, are too heavy and cumbersome to be readily lifted by hand.
Many devices have been developed for getting recreational vehicles onto the bed of another vehicle. One very simple device for this purpose may be a simple ramp leading from ground level to the level of the bed. Using such ramps can be somewhat dangerous, though. For instance, when placing a snowmobile on the bed of a pickup truck, the operator will usually orient the snowmobile toward the ramp and drive the snowmobile up the ramp onto the bed. It can be difficult to open the throttle just enough to get the vehicle onto the bed without continuing past the desired location on the bed. If the operator opens the throttle too far or for too long, the snowmobile may well collide with a wall at the forward end of the bed of a pickup truck, damaging both the snowmobile and the truck.
One other disadvantage of ramps is that many types of recreational vehicles cannot be steered, or perhaps even propelled, up ramps. Snowmobiles, for example, are steered via their skis and require snow that the skis can dig into to change the direction of the vehicle. In order to load a snowmobile on a vehicle using a ramp, the snowmobile must be properly aligned with the ramp before loading because the skis cannot steer the machine on the relatively smooth surface of a ramp. This problem is even more acute with personal watercraft because they not only are not steerable out of the water, they also require water for propulsion. Accordingly, one must generally either launch the vehicle out of the water so that momentum will carry it up a ramp or use a winch to drag the vehicle up the ramp.
Others have proposed somewhat more complex devices for loading a recreational vehicle on a bed of a transport vehicle. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,794, Flamm teaches a frame which is installed on a Bed of a pickup truck. The frame includes a lip at its rearward end for releasably engaging a ramp which extends down to the ground. As with other ramp-based systems, though, there is the risk that the operator will not stop the vehicle at the proper location and the vehicle can collide with the back of the cab of the pickup truck or other transport vehicle.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,314, Haugland suggests a modification of the ramp idea. In accordance with Haugland's disclosure, the vehicle is driven onto a ramp, but is stopped shy of the end of the ramp. The operator is then supposed to manually lift the ramp and the vehicle up to the level of the bed and then slide the ramp along the bed to stow the vehicle. This device may work if the recreational vehicle is relatively light and if there is only one vehicle on the ramp. Even a single, relatively light vehicle may be too heavy for some individuals to lift unaided, though. Furthermore, this device is limited to storing recreational vehicles at relatively low heights; lifting the vehicle substantially above the level of the operator's waist could be very difficult for many people.
The problems associated with manually lifting Haugland's ramp are further compounded by the fact that many recreational vehicles are not loaded on perfectly level, firm ground. In the case of snowmobiles, the vehicles are commonly unloaded onto snowy, and perhaps icy, ground; watercraft would presumably be loaded while the operator is standing in a body of water, such as on a marshy lakebed. Not only would uneven, slippery terrain make lifting more difficult, it may make the device unsafe in that the operator could slip under the ramp while trying to lift it, allowing the full weight of the ramp and the recreational vehicle to fall on the operator.
Nydam et al. set forth a similar device in U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,673, but the ramp is designed to be positioned above the floor of the truck's bed when horizontally disposed in the truck for transport. As with Haugland's teachings, though, there are no supports or mechanical aids for lifting the materials being transported. Much like Haugland's device, it would be rather difficult for an avenge person to lift a heavier recreational vehicle, much less two or more such vehicles, to such a height.
Wrenn teaches a system for loading a personal watercraft onto the bed of a pickup truck in U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,356. In accordance with Wrenn's teachings, a watercraft is placed on the ends of a bendable extension formed of flexible plastic pipe. With the watercraft still in the water, the throttle of the craft is opened to suddenly propel the vehicle into the back of the pickup truck. As the watercraft cannot continue to generate drive once it leaves the water, the vehicle must be given sufficient momentum in a single blast to launch the vehicle into its desired position. This would appear to be very difficult to achieve safely and reproducibly as overpropulsion of the watercraft could easily send the craft crashing into the back of the pickup's cab.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a means for loading and unloading a recreational vehicle onto and off of another vehicle which does not rely on the recreational vehicle's own propulsion to get it into place on the bed of the vehicle. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide such a device which could allow virtually anyone to lift one or more recreational vehicles onto a bed for transport without requiring any undue strength or work.